


Fealty

by nonisland



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Oaths & Vows, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Premarital hand-holding, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25780783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonisland/pseuds/nonisland
Summary: Hubert makes his vow to his new emperor, gladly.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Fealty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [birdginia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdginia/gifts).



> Gin asked for “edelbert handholding” for, again, that Twitter meme where you are supposed to write one (1) sentence, and at which, again, I signally failed, although this one at least fit in one tweet when screenshotted and is just a repost. Thanks to Ember, who still does not go here, for assistance in modifying [a historical oath of homage](https://web.archive.org/web/20110521102345/http://www.wiganman.co.uk/Content/history/homage.html).
> 
> * * *

When he looks back on it, it astonishes Hubert that their first meeting was not more momentous. If the stars halted a moment in the sky, he knew nothing of it. Or perhaps they did, and that is what blotted that first sight of Lady Edelgard from his memory. He knows he must have sworn his allegiance to her at the time. His father would have accepted the look of nothing less than perfect ceremony. He has found the words he must have recited, mouthed as any child that age would with as little understanding, but that is hardly the same as _remembering_.

He remembers her injury, but not when duty turned to devotion. He remembers the oaths he’d sworn as he tried to reclaim her from Fhirdiad, but they were oaths made in absentia, meaningless to her. He remembers the prayers, the bargains, the pleas when she was taken by those who slither after her return—but those, too, mattered to no one except the remorseless goddess who had rejected them; it had been no time for ceremony in Adrestia when she had been returned.

But now—

Her coronation was a simple affair. She looks no different when she returns to Garreg Mach and nods: a silent assurance that all has gone well; a question whether the same is true for him. They have a façade to keep up, so he returns her an impassive look and the slightest of nods himself.

They are not children any more, and her reign can start with nothing less than perfect loyalty. This, certainly, he can offer her: a strength and not an inconvenience. When they meet in her room that evening to discuss what they must do next, and as soon as the door is safely closed behind him, he says, finally, “Your Majesty.”

Her lips part, but before she can speak he sinks to his knees at her feet—not as gracefully as he had wished, but it is no matter—and holds his hands up to her, palm-together and hopefully not trembling. She starts to say his name, but stops, and folds her hands around his.

“Your Majesty,” he says again. “I become your man from this day forward.” He already has been, with nothing so rote as ceremony. “Life and limb and all earthly honor, I will be true in your service, and tend the fief that I hold from you with all my faith.” He should say, here, _except that which I owe the Goddess_. He does not.

Lady Edelgard’s breath catches, in the quiet of the room. Who knows how many people will swear that oath to her, exactly as she must wish it but dare not yet ask of anyone else? But he has, and at the very least she will always have that. Her hands tighten on his, briefly, and then she releases him so he may kiss her silken glove.


End file.
